HPA Rifles

[Viper Scout]

Anyone using high pressure air on a rifle. Lookong at a sniper rifle but not sure which way to go, wether it be spring or gas. Have access to a divers bottle for refills.

L115A3 - AW338 is the way I would like to go.

[Figjam]

Re: HPA Rifles

I may be being dim, but how could a spring gun be HPA?

[seansamurai1]

Re: HPA Rifles

There is a gas version available too.

[BAMF]

Re: HPA Rifles

Lookong at a sniper rifle but not sure which way to go, wether it be spring or gas.

L115A3 - AW338 is the way I would like to go.

I think he's looking into a sniper role, but as of yet is unsure of the platform he would enjoy more, spring or gas?

The thread is asking for other's opinions on HPA sniper rifles as far as I can see.

[PureSilver]

Re: HPA Rifles

HPA's one of the best platforms around for sniper rifles - much, much easier to get ultra-consistent than spring rifles and possibly even slightly cheaper, too, plus the finished rifle will be finely adjustable for power, which means you can use it at sites with different FPS limits without much difficulty. The most common HPA sniper conversions are based on Tanaka Works' M700-series receiver, and in particular upon the much cheaper KJW clone thereof, which already sports some of the most popular modifications to the original Tanaka design.

There is one immediate thing to note; there is only one gas replica of the Accuracy International Arctic Warfare Magnum, as the L115A3 is more formally known, on the market at present - Ares' AW338. Clones are made by Star and Well, and one of the three (probably the Ares original) is widely rebranded as ASG. Although the Ares is licensed by AI and beautifully (externally) made, the fact that only one design of AWM is available is not a good thing - Ares products in general are noted for their fragile construction, poor design, and proprietary parts which make them hard to repair and almost impossible to comprehensively upgrade. However, by switching to HPA you may be able to mitigate some of these problems; the much-vaunted Tanaka PCS bolt is superfluous if you're using HPA, for example.

I wouldn't touch the Well or the Star clones with a 10' pole, so if you must have an AWM then the Ares it is, though personally I would consider picking another rifle (the non-magnum Arctic Warfare (L96 and variants) for example) that is more widely replicated. The Ares is not cheap, but by virtue of there being almost no upgrade parts available it won't get much more expensive. You will need:

1. Ares AW338 Gas: The only AWM worth buying. $512
2. Ares AW338 Gas Magazine: You'll want at least two. $69
3. RedLine Airsoft Firebase Air System: By far the best HPA rig on the market, this is light-years ahead of Palmers' Pursuit gear, and so it should be as the Palmers' is now thirty-plus years old. This is sufficiently finely adjustable that you don't need a secondary regulator (like you would with a Palmers), and includes braided line (a huge improvement over the dreaded Macroline) and an emergency blow-off valve (140psi) to protect your rifle, which is nice. $157.50
4. HPA Tank: This depends on your preferred set-up. With a bolt-action rifle, my personal preference would be to fit a small (13c.i.) HPA tank to the rifle (in a stock pouch), rather than having a line to a larger tank worn on your person. If you go with the smaller tank, you might also need a larger tank to refill it from unless the SCUBA cylinder you have access to travels to games with you. A 13c.i. tank is $72; a 62c.i. is $58.46
5. 1/8" NPT Tap: For tapping your magazines to accept the QD fitting. ~$10
6. Male-Male QD Nipple (Self-Sealing): You'll need one for each magazine. $4.46ea. for a total of $8.92

Total: $757.42 w/o air tank, $829.42 with the 13c.i. tank and $815.88 with the 62c.i.

That's close to a complete list, but remember that it doesn't include shipping or tax, and that the RedLine website is currently holding a 10%-off blanket sale. You would also want a scope and rings and a bipod, and probably also a new hop-up rubber (VSR-compatible) and maybe a new inner barrel, depending upon what the Ares has as standard. The key thing to take away from that list is how expensive the Ares is; of that $829.42 the precision, niche, high-quality made-in-the-U.S.A. HPA rig, 13c.i. tank and conversion parts are only $238.42 - less than a third of the total. You could take that $238.42 and build it into a G&G G96 or KJW M700 and achieve similar (or better) results than the Ares for much, much less money.

[RedHawk]

Re: HPA Rifles

I use a custom Polarstar gearbox in my RS SVD. Bearing in mind that a stock SVD from Real Sword is a great platform, converting it to HPA was the only thing I could've done to make it better.

Kudos to PureSilver for that great post.

[Viper Scout]

Re: HPA Rifles

Sorry guys,awol. Would like to go for a sniper rifle but unsure as to go for spring, electric or gas or hpa.
Liking the idea of hpa as I have a divers bottle to refill from.
My ideal rifle base is the L115A3.

Thanks PureSilver for your superb post.

[Thingy]

Re: HPA Rifles

You really wont regret switching to HPA, once you have the full setup its very easy to use and the adjustability and consistency with FPS is extremley helpful - especially at sites with dodgy chronos like F&O
Having a divers bottle is an ever bigger plus.

I've just moved over to a Daytona and I'll never look back thats for sure!

[PureSilver]

Re: HPA Rifles

Sorry guys,awol. Would like to go for a sniper rifle but unsure as to go for spring, electric or gas or hpa.
Liking the idea of hpa as I have a divers bottle to refill from.
My ideal rifle base is the L115A3.

Like I said, a lot depends upon the rifle that you want to copy. The L115A3 (AI AWM) is a bolt-action, so there's no electric (semi-automatic) variant as it's a single-action gun. There is a spring version, but (being Ares) it's not VSR-compatible (the gold standard in spring sniper rifles) so it will be extremely difficult to upgrade and tune to high levels of power and accuracy - and even if you do get it all working, with a big spring behind it (for big power) it will be hard to cock it before each shot. HPA is definitely the way to go for bolt-action sniper rifles - much easier to set up than springers, more consistent than an AEG, and much easier than both to fire.

Again, though, like I said the AWM (L115A3) is not widely copied - it's the Ares, or nothing. If you were willing to go instead for the older AW- (L96-) series, which are visually very similar to the AWM, you would have a lot more choice and the rifle could end up being substantially cheaper. If you were willing to build a 'tester' rifle just to try out the whole HPA thing, you could build a KJW M700 for fully a third of the price of the AWM.

What's your budget?

[Viper Scout]

Re: HPA Rifles

Was trying to stay south of £500, and really don't mind secondhand.
I mean, does the wife really need more earrings this Christmas!?

[Lt3033]

Re: HPA Rifles

Hpa will be great way to go! After I finally get my polar star together for my m4 I plan on getting a gas kjw m700 and converting the mag to take a hpa line as I will already have the bottle and regulator.

If tapping the m700 mag goes well I hope to get a new pistol and use my p226 in a carbine kit and tap all of the mags I have for a CQB beast

[PureSilver]

Re: HPA Rifles

Was trying to stay south of £500, and really don't mind secondhand.

Well, I'd say you're unlikely to find the really good bits (the Firebase, in particular) secondhand as they're still quite new, and I would be very cautious about buying HPA bottles secondhand. The Firebase rig ($175), two magazine adapters ($9 for both) and a 13c.u. tank ($80) plus shipping and import duties will set you back around £220ish. You will also need a 1/2" NPT tap to thread the magazines, an 11/16^th drillbit to drill the holes to be tapped, and some epoxy (permanent) or Teflon tape (non-permanent) to help you seal them. Bear in mind that if the SCUBA bottle you have access to doesn't travel with you to games, you will need either a larger bottle worn on your person, or a larger bottle that you could refill the 13c.u. bottle from in between games. That combination of parts will fit just about any gas rifle you choose.

There are two AW338s for sale in the Classifieds. One rather battered-looking example is up for £210 but as the seller's not been online since September I think you've missed the boat on that one. The other is up for £300; it looks ideal, being in good condition and coming with three magazines, but the listing hasn't been bumped since July so it's possible it has sold - although the seller was online yesterday, so it couldn't hurt to ask. Similar-looking rifles also include this G&G G96 for £200 and my personal favourite, this extensively-upgraded Tanaka M700 AICS for £250 which needs some further upgrades to be near-as-makes-no-difference perfect. Shop around, and see what's available.

[sean20012]

Re: HPA Rifles

hi sorry to hijack the thread, but has any one ever used a ag1 air regulator it dose go as low as 50psi am doing a hpa build I wanted to know would this work as I have one lying round or would I need to get the firebase rig, trying to keep cost down and use up some of my old paintball stuff.

thanks sean

[RedHawk]

Re: HPA Rifles

As long as the regulator can provide the correct PSI for your system (Daytona Gun 100-120 PSI or Fusion Engine 80-120 PSI) then you should be good to go.

[PureSilver]

Re: HPA Rifles

hi sorry to hijack the thread, but has any one ever used a ag1 air regulator it dose go as low as 50psi am doing a hpa build I wanted to know would this work as I have one lying round or would I need to get the firebase rig, trying to keep cost down and use up some of my old paintball stuff.

Like RedHawk says, it depends upon what you want to do with it. If you're using a Polar* system, even quite a coarse-adjustment regulator (that is, one that has big 'jumps' in pressure between each adjustment) should be OK as you can compensate to some degree with the electronic abilities of the Fusion Engine. If you're using a DaytonaGun, you can't compensate as well but you won't need total precision for an assault or support weapon so that should be fine. For a sniper weapon, though, where you want greater precision, a very coarse or imprecise regulator will be a pain in the arse. HPA sniper rifles with tapped magazines usually operate in the 70-110psi range (efficiency and desired muzzle energy dependent) so it sounds like your regulator should be OK in that sense, but if it gains and drops 50psi with every click it won't be much good.

However, the Firebase is absolutely top-of-the-line equipment. It isn't much more expensive than other regulators, so I wouldn't buy any other regulator instead of it, but if you already own a regulator you have nothing to lose by trying that one first; you can always swap in a Firebase later. The AG1 isn't a very good regulator, from the reviews online, but it is probably good enough until you can get something better.